Thank you Olivia I’m so angry as many are. This is beyond disgusting and evil. How they want to take everything away from the American people. People who need these programs. People need health care and their medicine. People need food on their tables.They want to make Americans suffer all the while they get richer. I can’t believe these monsters have know soul but they don’t horrible and evil is what trump, his regime and the ex Republican Party are. Because anyone who takes the things away who helps and save everyday American people, families and children away are beyond evil. God when will this madness end and the cruelty they have for people who have done nothing but try to survive each and everyday.
Again our current system is unsustainable. We cannot go on spending more than we take in. The Republicans may not have the best solution but at least they are acknowledging the problem. The Democrats do not even acknowledge that there is a problem in first place. Ignoring a problem is just as bad as making up a solution to a problem that will not work.
I just wrote an essay on the topic and it seems to have been eaten by the internet.
My argument was basically that between poor quality care and denial of care, along with the utilization of emergency rooms for primary care, we are probably wasting way more than required to sustain the system.
It works the same for the private insurance sector incidentally. Waiting until people are really sick or broken, until they meet some bureaucratically determined criteria, is expensive as hell and IDK why they never seem to catch on to that. Or maybe they have and reckon, if it gets bad enough they'll shove the problem off onto the govt anyhow. Similar to Walmart's tactic of getting indirect govt subsidies through low wages.
Someone should at least evaluate the fiscal/financial advantages of providing immediate, appropriate care (preferably in clinics rather than ER's). The current system is, indeed, unsustainable. I'd maintain this is in large part because the current system absolutely sucks.
OF course you are right. However, do you want to pay for a complete stranger's health who is sick because they smoked like a chimney and drank a lot of alcohole and yet were very careful with how you took care of your health. Why should you have to pay for someone else's bad habits??? Think about that.
It is not a simple problem. I do not want to take care of someone who delibertly destroys their health by drinking like a fish and smoking like a chimmney, while I do all the correct things and I have to pay for them. I have children and grandchildren who need care why I should I pay for some person who refuses to take care of their health. It is not so simple.
Why do you assume that people on Medicaid ruined their own health? Maybe they worked physically demanding jobs (e.g., road repair, coal mining, certified nursing assistants). Or maybe they lived in poorer parts of town downwind from smokestacks that got more pollution. Or maybe they are simply old and in a nursing home (Medicaid, not Medicare, pays for most nursing home care). These are issues my late husband spent a career working on, so I heard a lot about them over the years. You are blaming the victim and need to get your facts straight.
You do know don’t you that they want to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act which resulted in no jobs & tax cuts to corporations & the wealthy. According to Professor Heather Cox Richardson, a renowned historian, between 1981 and 2021, $50 trillion was transferred from the bottom 50% to the top 1%. This transfer of wealth has resulted in a great inequity between the haves and have’s not. dRumpf & his cronies want to continue that practice & further line their pockets at the expense of the American people. If corporations, the wealthy & mega-churches paid their fair share of taxes, no one would go hungry or without shelter or without healthcare. There would be enough for everyone to have a decent life.
I disagree, there still would not be enough money even if certain people and groups pay their fair share. However, it certainly would help to make the groups you mentioned pay their far share, as every additional revenue to the tax base, helps.
Thanks for the idea of calling Josh Hawley and asking what we can do as constituents of other representatives. Great idea.
I did read the unholy tome Project 2025. One doesn't need to step all that far back from it to see the agenda to cripple/eliminate vital services and funding combined with the rabid immoral agenda to eliminate non-white immigrants and refugees as being foundational to an ultimate goal of wiping everyone out who isn't in the "chosen few". It's been tried before.
Keep fighting this hate-based regime, good people, at every turn, on every front, and every day. Lock elbows, y'all.
And thank you, Olivia, for doing everything you can do to shine a light on the dire conditions of this legislation. One knows it must be bad when Josh Hawley speaks up. What also angers me is that the actions and underhandedness of politicians indicates that their opinion of the American people is we are too stupid to notice the “slight of hand” they’re pulling regarding almost everything in this budget bill. We are NOT stupid and will call it out when and where we can. I just wish more of our elected officials would do the same. Some are like Crockett Rand Murphy but far too many stay silent and therefore complicit in the deception. We, the people, deserve better.
Olivia-you are a gift. Thank you for your service, your kindness, courage and truth. I remember being a social worker intern in new haven, ct in the mid 80’s and Reagan decided to de-institutionalize the psychiatric patients across the country which put them on the streets with no $, DRs or their medications. This resulted in the beginning of homelessness. As an intern working in a community center this was devastating. We did the best we could and this broke our hearts.
Olivia, Your messages are so powerful. You speak the TRUTH. I wonder if we could get every democratic congressperson and every democratic senator to sign this post and let our Republican leaders understand that we will never back down. We will vote them out of office and rebuild America
Thank you Olivia for posting this. I feel some people in Congress need to grow sturdy spines and NOT pass this. I guess they don't realize that shutting off the fentanyl problem isn't going to help already addicted people if they pass this thing. Because they will have more addicts in our country than they know what to do with. AND they will have to blame themselves for this matter.
Thank you once again for offering a focused detailed account of the consequences of 'reconciliation' bill and calling out the deliberately confusing language. The details you share are helpful for our calls.
I am still appalled at the number of our elected 'leaders' who fail to show any responsibility to their most vulnerable constituents, and who - by their silence - are just empty fearful and/or ambitious and greedy party hacks. Too too many dishonor both the spirit and the practice of their oaths of office.
Kudos to our Congress people who are speaking out ever more insistently. And to you for this important, informative and practical piece that can be easily shared. (And for reading P2025.)
Thank you, Olivia, I too downloaded project 2025 back in 2024 when I first heard about it and I am working my way through it. Even when he denied it, I knew all along that's what he would follow and that's exactly what he's doing.
Excellent summary about this urgent matter. When even Josh Hawley comes forward, that is something. The stealing from the poor once again to provide the tax cuts for the rich is a moral travesty.
How brave of Josh Hawley to write an article for the NYT and go on CNN to express his concerns about cuts to Medicaid. Did he also go on Fox and other right wing outlets where the people who need to hear this are watching? Or did he stick to safe spaces where he’s preaching to the choir and won’t incur the wrath of MAGA world for stepping out of line?
Here's the thing. This administration, and the oligarchs who work with them, is evil and corrupt. We keep reporting individual things - they're going after Medicaid - while the bill has a provision to go after any non-profit they deem "terrorist". Musk is installing his corrupt - corrupted the election - Starlink worldwide as he and Trump take corruption to a new level. Individuals members of the administration getting wealthy with insider stock trades. More than 20 members of the Fox network - those people who lie for a living, in positions of influence and power. Going after people of color for ANY reason. It's already much worse than is reported and will continue to deteriorate. If Trump was actually competent and not a corrupt figurehead we'd be further along. Still, the people pulling the strings - Miller, Bessent, the corrupt SCOTUS justices, Voight, the Heritage Foundation and the oligarchs are competent enough to get around Trump and make the takeover work.
Thank you Olivia I’m so angry as many are. This is beyond disgusting and evil. How they want to take everything away from the American people. People who need these programs. People need health care and their medicine. People need food on their tables.They want to make Americans suffer all the while they get richer. I can’t believe these monsters have know soul but they don’t horrible and evil is what trump, his regime and the ex Republican Party are. Because anyone who takes the things away who helps and save everyday American people, families and children away are beyond evil. God when will this madness end and the cruelty they have for people who have done nothing but try to survive each and everyday.
Again our current system is unsustainable. We cannot go on spending more than we take in. The Republicans may not have the best solution but at least they are acknowledging the problem. The Democrats do not even acknowledge that there is a problem in first place. Ignoring a problem is just as bad as making up a solution to a problem that will not work.
I just wrote an essay on the topic and it seems to have been eaten by the internet.
My argument was basically that between poor quality care and denial of care, along with the utilization of emergency rooms for primary care, we are probably wasting way more than required to sustain the system.
It works the same for the private insurance sector incidentally. Waiting until people are really sick or broken, until they meet some bureaucratically determined criteria, is expensive as hell and IDK why they never seem to catch on to that. Or maybe they have and reckon, if it gets bad enough they'll shove the problem off onto the govt anyhow. Similar to Walmart's tactic of getting indirect govt subsidies through low wages.
Someone should at least evaluate the fiscal/financial advantages of providing immediate, appropriate care (preferably in clinics rather than ER's). The current system is, indeed, unsustainable. I'd maintain this is in large part because the current system absolutely sucks.
Yes, and we should be following the money. Who is profiting from the current system?
People aren't numbers on a damned spread sheet! Lives are in the balance!
OF course you are right. However, do you want to pay for a complete stranger's health who is sick because they smoked like a chimney and drank a lot of alcohole and yet were very careful with how you took care of your health. Why should you have to pay for someone else's bad habits??? Think about that.
It's not my place to judge them. Health care is a human right. I'll gladly pay to help others. It's the essence of humanity.
It is not a simple problem. I do not want to take care of someone who delibertly destroys their health by drinking like a fish and smoking like a chimmney, while I do all the correct things and I have to pay for them. I have children and grandchildren who need care why I should I pay for some person who refuses to take care of their health. It is not so simple.
Why do you assume that people on Medicaid ruined their own health? Maybe they worked physically demanding jobs (e.g., road repair, coal mining, certified nursing assistants). Or maybe they lived in poorer parts of town downwind from smokestacks that got more pollution. Or maybe they are simply old and in a nursing home (Medicaid, not Medicare, pays for most nursing home care). These are issues my late husband spent a career working on, so I heard a lot about them over the years. You are blaming the victim and need to get your facts straight.
You do know don’t you that they want to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act which resulted in no jobs & tax cuts to corporations & the wealthy. According to Professor Heather Cox Richardson, a renowned historian, between 1981 and 2021, $50 trillion was transferred from the bottom 50% to the top 1%. This transfer of wealth has resulted in a great inequity between the haves and have’s not. dRumpf & his cronies want to continue that practice & further line their pockets at the expense of the American people. If corporations, the wealthy & mega-churches paid their fair share of taxes, no one would go hungry or without shelter or without healthcare. There would be enough for everyone to have a decent life.
I disagree, there still would not be enough money even if certain people and groups pay their fair share. However, it certainly would help to make the groups you mentioned pay their far share, as every additional revenue to the tax base, helps.
fair share, certain groups should be made to pay their "fair share'.
Thanks for the idea of calling Josh Hawley and asking what we can do as constituents of other representatives. Great idea.
I did read the unholy tome Project 2025. One doesn't need to step all that far back from it to see the agenda to cripple/eliminate vital services and funding combined with the rabid immoral agenda to eliminate non-white immigrants and refugees as being foundational to an ultimate goal of wiping everyone out who isn't in the "chosen few". It's been tried before.
Keep fighting this hate-based regime, good people, at every turn, on every front, and every day. Lock elbows, y'all.
I'd rather throw elbows.😡😡
Thanks again Olivia for sounding the alarm. I'm doing my best to help.
And thank you, Olivia, for doing everything you can do to shine a light on the dire conditions of this legislation. One knows it must be bad when Josh Hawley speaks up. What also angers me is that the actions and underhandedness of politicians indicates that their opinion of the American people is we are too stupid to notice the “slight of hand” they’re pulling regarding almost everything in this budget bill. We are NOT stupid and will call it out when and where we can. I just wish more of our elected officials would do the same. Some are like Crockett Rand Murphy but far too many stay silent and therefore complicit in the deception. We, the people, deserve better.
Not a joke
Olivia-you are a gift. Thank you for your service, your kindness, courage and truth. I remember being a social worker intern in new haven, ct in the mid 80’s and Reagan decided to de-institutionalize the psychiatric patients across the country which put them on the streets with no $, DRs or their medications. This resulted in the beginning of homelessness. As an intern working in a community center this was devastating. We did the best we could and this broke our hearts.
Jeez. That guy sucks for so many reasons. But, let's just go with January 6th when he ran away from his followers.
But when he's sounding the alarm, you know something is really wrong.
Olivia, Your messages are so powerful. You speak the TRUTH. I wonder if we could get every democratic congressperson and every democratic senator to sign this post and let our Republican leaders understand that we will never back down. We will vote them out of office and rebuild America
Olivia, we thank you.
I cannot believe that Josh Hawley - JOSH HAWLEY - is the MAGA who defends MEDICAID against MAGA. 🫨
Thank you Olivia for posting this. I feel some people in Congress need to grow sturdy spines and NOT pass this. I guess they don't realize that shutting off the fentanyl problem isn't going to help already addicted people if they pass this thing. Because they will have more addicts in our country than they know what to do with. AND they will have to blame themselves for this matter.
Thank you once again for offering a focused detailed account of the consequences of 'reconciliation' bill and calling out the deliberately confusing language. The details you share are helpful for our calls.
I am still appalled at the number of our elected 'leaders' who fail to show any responsibility to their most vulnerable constituents, and who - by their silence - are just empty fearful and/or ambitious and greedy party hacks. Too too many dishonor both the spirit and the practice of their oaths of office.
Kudos to our Congress people who are speaking out ever more insistently. And to you for this important, informative and practical piece that can be easily shared. (And for reading P2025.)
ACT! 5 calls app.
Thank you, Olivia, I too downloaded project 2025 back in 2024 when I first heard about it and I am working my way through it. Even when he denied it, I knew all along that's what he would follow and that's exactly what he's doing.
Excellent summary about this urgent matter. When even Josh Hawley comes forward, that is something. The stealing from the poor once again to provide the tax cuts for the rich is a moral travesty.
How brave of Josh Hawley to write an article for the NYT and go on CNN to express his concerns about cuts to Medicaid. Did he also go on Fox and other right wing outlets where the people who need to hear this are watching? Or did he stick to safe spaces where he’s preaching to the choir and won’t incur the wrath of MAGA world for stepping out of line?
Don’t believe or trust MAGA!
They lie as though it were a bodily function
Here's the thing. This administration, and the oligarchs who work with them, is evil and corrupt. We keep reporting individual things - they're going after Medicaid - while the bill has a provision to go after any non-profit they deem "terrorist". Musk is installing his corrupt - corrupted the election - Starlink worldwide as he and Trump take corruption to a new level. Individuals members of the administration getting wealthy with insider stock trades. More than 20 members of the Fox network - those people who lie for a living, in positions of influence and power. Going after people of color for ANY reason. It's already much worse than is reported and will continue to deteriorate. If Trump was actually competent and not a corrupt figurehead we'd be further along. Still, the people pulling the strings - Miller, Bessent, the corrupt SCOTUS justices, Voight, the Heritage Foundation and the oligarchs are competent enough to get around Trump and make the takeover work.